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From Castlebar - County Mayo - Kevin McDonald Hi Guys Well it's the end of another week and it was a busy one. I was escorting a UN agency up close to the Sudanese border to a town called Ade, last Monday and Tuesday, so that was an overnight in the bush which ended up quite chilly. Well, chilly is relative but it was nice and mild when I got into the sleeping bag at 8pm but I was shivering by midnight and only had a shirt to put on. It was probably only about 20 degrees but after a day of 44 it felt really cold.
On Thursday I had to escort World Food Programme personnel to Djaoue so they could check up on the progress of villagers they had taught the best way to plant vegetables. It was interesting, I ended up drawing water for one of the villagers (always the gentleman!!). I was rewarded by getting a radish which I of course had to eat in front of the Company!!
Today, Saturday was a competition day and I had to run 4.5 km in full kit, then go through a shooting competition, followed by volleyball and finally soccer. Needless to say I am black and blue at the moment. Next Wednesday we hit the half way mark in this deployment to Chad and thankfully it is going really quickly and more importantly safely. I am off on a long range helicopter flight tomorrow to see if I can bring about 18 vehicles to a town called Am Timam next Monday. Apparently there are a few dried up river beds (wadi's) that will be difficult to cross not to mention about 10kms of scrub and bush. The distance involved is 180kms and I reckon it will take us 3 days to get there and a day there plus of course 3 days back.
The heat is building up now and by 1100 most days it's hitting the high forties, I reckon on my next patrol I will try and fry an egg on the roof of the armoured car, which should be interesting. That's all for the time being. © Copyright 2010 by Castlebar - County Mayo - |
